Slitherine

Played tested Imperial Macedonian vs Late Republican Roman.
The Macedonians and Roman had 3 x TC and an Inspiration CiC

Romans order of March

4 Moor LH, Undrilled, Ave JLS
6 Slingers LF, Ave, Undrilled Sling
6 Archers LF Ave Undrilled, Bow
Thracians 8 MF Undrilled, Ave, Prot ,Hvy Wpn.
Spainish 8 MF Undrilled, Ave, Prot ,Imp, Swd
Gallic Cav, 2 x Cav, Prot, Undrilled , Superior
5 x 4 Legionaires HF, Drilled, Armoured, Sk Swd, Impact, Superior Morale


Macedonians Order of March

6 Thracian LH, Ave, Undrilled, Unprot, JLS
6 Cretan Archers LF, Superior, Drilled ,Unprot, Bow
6 Skythians LH, Ave, Undrilled , Unprot, Bow, Swords
4 Prod, LH, Ave, Drilled, Lancer
4 Aegama Cav, Elite, Arm, Lancer, Swd
4 Comp Cav, Superior, Arm, Lancer Swd
8 Hypaspists HF, Drilled, Superior, Pike
3 x 8 Ft Comp. HF, Drilled, Ave, Pike
12 Ft Companians HF, Drilled Ave Pike
2 x Elephants, Ave undrilled

Macedonians won the initiative and picked Agriculture to fight in. Macedonians picked
1 x Open Field (mand), 2 x Open areas
Romans picked 1 x Open Field, Plantation, Vineyard, Gulley and Steep Hill.

The Terrain fell nicely for the Romans, a gulley and Open field were played on Macedonian the right center and were not able to be moved, The steep hill fell on the Macedonian rear edge, left center and was not able to be moved. The Vineyard fell on the Romans right center rear edge and was not moved. Everything else fell on the flank touching the side and Played no role in the battle.

Romans deployed LH facing the Open Field on their left and LF vs the steep hill on their right. The Spainish were facing the gulley and next to the LH, then 4 Legionaires, the
Thracians in the Vineyard with a Legionaire unit and 2 Gallic Cav in reserve.

The Macedonians placed their LH on their left, then the Ft Companions, Elephant
Unit, Hpyaspist, Elephant, Cretans facing the gulley with the Aegma and Compians in reserve. Part of the Ft Companian started on the Steep hill.

The Macedonians played a TC with the Thracian LH, TC with the Hypast, TC with the Aegma and the CIC with the Phalanx.

The Romans placed a TC with the Slingers, TC with the Spainish, TC with the center Legionaire and the CiC with the Gallic Cav.

The Roman Archers moved forward stopping 12” from the Macedonian LH, and the Slingers moved twice towards the Phalanx. The Spainards raced for the Gulley in the
Roman Left center and the Moors moved towards the Open Field. The Roman center moved forward with Gallic cav moving to support the Spainish. The Thracians held
In the vineyard and the Legionaire unit in reserved moved to the Roman right to
Support the LF.

The Macedonian Foot Companians took both moves to clear the Steep hill. The Hypastpist and the Elephants on each side surged ahead of the Phalanx to the left of
Gulley.

The Cretans moved to the right edge of the gulley facing the Thracians

The Aegma and Companians moved to support the Hypaspists and Elephants.

The Roman Moors swung thru the Open Field, the Spainish moved within an MU of
The gulley and 3 MU of the Macedonian Elephants. The Roman TC retired towards the
Gallic Cav supporting the Spainish.

The Macedonians committed the rightmost Elephant against the Spainish. The
Elephants hit the Spainish with an overlap
(ASC)

Span Span Span Span
Span Span Span Span
El El

The Elephants won the impact, inflicting 2 hits to 1, and then the Spainish passed
Their morale check.

The maneuver phase the Hypast moved to support the Elephants left, Phalanx advanced
The Macedonian Lh closed to Javelin range vs the Roman LF. The Cretans advanced to
6” of the Moors and The Aegama and Comp Cav moved to support the Elephants.

The missle fire from both sides did no damage.
The melee phase the Elephants won the melee, again inflicting 3 hits to 2 hits, and the
Spainish failed going disordered.

The Roman TC moved to join the closest Legionaire to the Spainish in the Joint action phase. The Moors moved to swing wide towards the table edge. The Legionaires with
2 x TC in the front ranks moved towards the Elephants and Hypastpist.
The LF both retired towards the safety of the vineyard and the Thracians moved to the
Edge of the vineyard.

The melee phase the Elephants won again, inflicting 2 hits to 1 , the the Spainish passed
their morale test due to the Support of the Gallic cav units.

The Romans Legionaire with a TC leading them charged the Elephant fighting the Spainish. The impact phase saw the Romans win, inflicting 2 hits to one, and the
Elephants passed their morale. The Moors moved to the edge of the open field and
Legionaires continued to advance. The LF continued to run for the vineyard and
Were now within 3 MU of it and felt much safer.

Rm Rm Span Span Span Span
Rm Rm Span Span Span Span
El El


The combat phase saw the Romans and Spainish inflict 4 hits on the Elephants,
3 from the Romans and 1 from the Spainish. The Elephants only did 1 each , and
rolled a 3, causing an auto break.

The Hypaspt, other Elephant and Aegma all had to check, but passed the morale test.

The Hypast then charged Romans straight up, with The Elephants moving to support.
Both sides had a TC fighting in the front rank.

It was an even fight, both sides needing 4 to hit, rerolling 1s and 2s!
Both sides did 4 hits, the Hypast lost a man, and the Romans made their save.
The Cretans retired down the gulley towards the Spainish, with the Companions
Moved to face the Moors who were in position to make a run for the Macedonian camp.
The Phalanx continued to advance, and the Skythian LH moved to support the Thracian LH shooting at the Roman LF.

Now the Romans had a POA in one of the files, and won the combat 3 to 2.
The Hypast lost another file, and were now only 3 ranks deep and both Roman
Files had a POA

Rm Rm Span Span Span Span
Rm Rm Span Span Span Span
Hy Hy LF LF
Hy Hy LF LF
EL EL Hy Hy LF LF
The Roman Legionaires advanced, the Moors withdrew seeing Companions advancing on them. The LF and Macedonian LH continued to exchange missle fire, neither side doing any real damage.
The Romans had now 2 POA, better armour and skilled swordsmen.
The Romans won the melee and the Hypast passed the morale check, but lost another
File.
A Macedonian TC moved to join the Cretan archers.
The Cretans charged the Spainish in the flank inflicting 2 hits and the Spainish
Failed the morale test going fragmented. The Spainish flank was in the gulley.

The Macedonians committed the Elephants to the Melee and the Phalanx moved to support Elephants.


Rm Rm Span Span Span Span LF LF
Rm Rm Span Span Span Span LF LF
EL EL Hy Hy LF LF
Hy Hy
Hy

Pike Pike Pike
Pike Pike Pike
Pike Pike Pike
Pike Pike Pike

The Cretans inflicted 3 hits on the Spainish, Superior, a TC leading them in rerolling 1s and 2s. The Spainish failed the morale test and broke. The Cretans pursued and caught the Spainish.
The Romans lost to the Elephants and Hypaspist and lost a file and went disordered.

The Romans with a TC then Charged the Elephants, winning the impact phase and
Killed an elephant autobreaking them, The Phalanx and Hypasptist passed the moral test.

Rm Rm Rm
Rm Rm Rm Rm
Hy Hy
Hy Hy
Hy
Pike Pike Pike
Pike Pike Pike
Pike Pike Pike
Pike Pike Pike

The Hypast were now fighting 2 Legionaires both with TC, and the Romans inflicted 5 hits, and the Hypast lost another file and their TC died when the Romans rolled an 11.
They failed the morale and went disordered.
The Macedonians Phalanx charged along the line. Both Sides need 4s to hit, but the Romans got to reroll their 1s being superior morale. That tipped the balance to them
They won every combat and the Macedonians passed their morale check, but lost a
few files. The Macedonians had 1 TC in the line, but he failed to make any difference.

During the melee phase the Romans has a POA where the Macedonians lost a file and
this and the superior morale swung the melee to the Romans. The Macedonians lost
every combat, lost a few more files, and 2 of the Foot companions were now disordered and the Hypast were fragmented.

The Romans won every melee again , Two of the foot companians who were disordeded
Broke when they rolled 3 total on their morale test. That did the Macedonians in
The Phalanx broke morale and the Hypast auto broke from casualties received.


Observations on this battle.

1. 2 stands of Elephants are very fragile. Needing only 1 hit to auto break them I am not sure about how cost effective they are.
2.The combination of better Roman morale and armor tipped the battle to the Romans.
The TC and being superior was deadly vs the Macedonian Phalanx. Once the Macedonians lost a file, the Romans had a POA, and that was the beginning of the end.
3. The Hypast being superior morale and having a TC fighting in the front rank held on
much longer.
4. Even though they were LF, the Superior Cretans with a TC leading them in broke
MF when it hit them in the flank.
5. The Romans made good use of their terrain placement, negating the Macedonian mounted and slowing the Phalanx.

General observations after playing 5 games.

1. A word and phrase index would be nice. We spent a lot of time looking for
things like variable move distances, what units are shock, and such. An
index of words and phrases would make this easier.

2. Print the charts larger and fewer charts on a page. This makes more pages
of charts necessary but makes them easier to read. (old eyes!!)

3.Should there be some penalty for being shot in the flank or rear?….
A point of advantage, a cohesion test, a minus to any test necessary by HPB,

4. There should be some opportunity to prevent a unit form moving
away from an opposing unit or just a zone of control to prevent this. Faster
units were able to just move right by the front of slower units no matter
how close as long as they could end where the other unit could not charge
them.
5. Can a unit of skirmishers looting a camp evade if charged or if they are in overlap?
6. There is manuever in the game, and deployment and use of the TC are critical.
7. Morale is to the physical as 3 is to 1 if both sides are otherwise equal.

have enjoyed being a Beta tester, thanks for letting me play!

best regards
Joey

Thanks for the report Joey.

1. 2 stands of Elephants are very fragile. Needing only 1 base loss to auto break them.

This is intentional.

2.The combination of better Roman morale and armor tipped the battle to the Romans.
The TC and being superior was deadly vs the Macedonian Phalanx. Once the Macedonians lost a file, the Romans had a POA, and that was the beginning of the end.

It seems to me that you may have missed the rule that (skilled) swordsmen do not get their POA if fighting steady pikes. Therefore if the pikes were steady and 4 ranks deep they would be one POA up except where they lost a file.

3.Should there be some penalty for being shot in the flank or rear?….
A point of advantage, a cohesion test, a minus to any test necessary by HPB,

We are trying to keep the rules as simple as possible, restricting the number of modifiers to the absolute minimum necessary to produce historically realistic results. On this basis we deemed a modifier for this unnecessary - the penalty is that you can't charge the shooters and that they may be able to concentrate fire.

4. There should be some opportunity to prevent a unit form moving
away from an opposing unit or just a zone of control to prevent this. Faster
units were able to just move right by the front of slower units no matter
how close as long as they could end where the other unit could not charge
them.

Check out the Restricted Area rules in the Manouvre Phase section.

5. Can a unit of skirmishers looting a camp evade if charged

Good question. As looting does not count as close combat, I guess they can.

or if they are in overlap?

Yes

----

Richard

rbodleyscott wrote:Thanks for the report Joey.

3.Should there be some penalty for being shot in the flank or rear?….
A point of advantage, a cohesion test, a minus to any test necessary by HPB,

We are trying to keep the rules as simple as possible, restricting the number of modifiers to the absolute minimum necessary to produce historically realistic results. On this basis we deemed a modifier for this unnecessary - the penalty is that you can't charge the shooters and that they may be able to concentrate fire.

----

Richard

Possibly the definition of threatened flank could be reworded to include troups shooting at the flank or rear - this would mostly benefit LF that can't charge and so don't threaten a flank.

sagji wrote:Possibly the definition of threatened flank could be reworded to include troups shooting at the flank or rear - this would mostly benefit LF that can't charge and so don't threaten a flank.

I think we are satisfied that their shooting is well balanced currently - they don't need any additional bonuses.

2.The combination of better Roman morale and armor tipped the battle to the Romans.
The TC and being superior was deadly vs the Macedonian Phalanx. Once the Macedonians lost a file, the Romans had a POA, and that was the beginning of the end.

It seems to me that you may have missed the rule that (skilled) swordsmen do not get their POA if fighting steady pikes. Therefore if the pikes were steady and 4 ranks deep they would be one POA up except where they lost a file.

you are right, after looking at the POA, we didn't count the POA for 3 ranks of Pike.

Joey